OKAY SO I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS IN HERE. Because hoooooly shit Last Exile why.

There are spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't seem Fam, yet! So stop reading if you are avoiding.

THE SUBJECT OF THIS POST: the information released in the last BD booklet.

Which is basically Dio is directly connected to what you see happened to Claus in Fam.



Claus appears in Fam and gasp, shock and surprise! He is in a wheelchair. Something happened there that rendered him unable to fly for the time being. The question on everyones' mind was why! Why did this happen! And most importantly how did this happen! The BD just revealed that this injury was obtained from him trying to help restore Dio back to his original state after Delphine's mindfuck in the first series.

It goes on to say that he is being treated, but. Still.

First I want to talk about the canon discrepancies, just for the sake of it. Now, like I've said in many other posts and essays past, I'm sure a lot of after-series info and such was created with no idea that hey, nine years from now there would be a sequel and all of this shit would happen. So naturally that sort of canon retconning of sorts happens. But still, considering how they dealt with Dio's recovery and information about it (spoilers: they dealt with it really badly), with this on top of it, it's just a jumble of "what the hell is happening oh God GONZO what are you even doing anymore??"


WHAT YOU CAN GATHER FROM FIRST SERIES INFORMATION:
- Dio falls in the Grand Stream.
- Dio gets recovered by a Guild ship/Coccinella (and Apis probably).
- There was that scene with Dagobert with the 'ascending' but that vs. the Aerial Log info = LOL?
- EITHER WAY. Dio is saved.

- HERE IS THE IMPORTANT THING: THIS official art happens as well. The image is a person who is obviously Dio, coming to greet the group on Earth, who look SURPRISED AND HAPPY TO SEE HIM AGAIN!

This implies that:
- Dio is better when he greets them.
- He recovered before he met them again.


This is what I based my headcanon on since it was the most solid thing I had before this infodrop! Dio gets saved -> Dio recovers memories/self -> Dio goes to Earth to everyone else is what you gather as what happened based from those canon sources. Canon sources that are difficult to gather because lol Last Exile people missing Dio's not-death. Obviously since that changed, I need to go file those original headcanon chain of events between away that don't line up with this info anymore.


WHAT FAM/THIS NEW INFO IMPLIES:
- Dio falls in the Grand Stream and is recovered.
- Either Claus comes back to Prester at one point or Dio goes to Earth while he's still crazy?
- Something happens here that ends in Claus getting paralyzed trying to help Dio recover from his mindfuckery.
- Dio recovers and realized what the fuck happened there. On top of all of his other memories.


So as we can see, this canon is bananas.

But now that Fam is saying this is a thing that happened, until more info is released about this, we get to play MORE guessing games about what happened! At least we have an answer as to why Claus is injured, but the answer is still vague as fuck.


So now there are so many possibilities as to what could have happened here.

- Was there another squabble between Anatoray-Disith and the Prester Guild with Dio involved somehow (as a princess needing to be rescued or something IDK) that ended in Claus getting injured in battle?
- If not that match-up, any other sort of battle/EVENT that occurred where Dio was involved but still ... not recovered? A fight, needing to fight something to get/find something that could help him?
- If Dio was still in crazy mode, did Dio somehow hurt Claus himself when Claus was trying to help him recover/remember? (which raises questions like why weren't Apis and Coccinella there since they would not have abandoned him being part of the Brogade and all, because they would have been able to stop him)


So yes THERE A LOT OF ... POSSIBILITIES HERE. But the main point of this is that Claus got hurt because of something having to do with Dio.

... and now we're gonna essay and ramble. :'D... because OH MY GOD of all the things they could do with Claus' injury they had to ... make it Dio's fault and give him MORE GUILT AND BOYFRIEND SADNESS.

First thing. When I headcanoned the reasons Dio left and eventually ended up with the Sky Pirates I mentioned: This, on top of Claus obtaining his injury (whenever the fuck that happened THANKS CANON) was what jolted him to head off on his own. Not only did he feel stifled, but yet another person that he cared a lot about was now unable to fly. He was grateful that Claus was still THERE and ALIVE, but the the skies around Dio didn't seem too hot after that.

Little did I know that this would turn into a NEW BOATLOAD OF SELF GUILT FOR BEING THE CAUSE OF THIS. But at least that headcanon was right on the money ... sob...

It's obvious in the canon itself in scenes (like when he talks to Fam about Lucciola) that Dio still holds guilt about ... those things and that's how I've played him. But in that case, it was only really with Lucciola before this info (with just a strong sympathy for Claus and insane drive to do what he can't anymore), because due to the fact that Dio was never free, could never fight against his sister, and in the end got messed up so badly and more or less was completely useless and weak in the grand scheme of things, that Lucciola had to sacrifice himself in order to save him. THAT KIND OF THING REALLY STICKS WITH YOU, in a 'what if I had done something different, what if I tried to fight harder' way. Dio needed everyone else to save him, back then. Even when he was on the Silvana, he hoped that the ship and its captain would be the ones to take down Delphine since the novels reveal his specific interest in that.

It's a no-brainer that Dio felt horrible about that, and still does to an extent. And that's just with Lucciola.

But now, apparently Dio wasn't even able to recover without getting another heavy hit in that guilt area. I was assuming that he recovered, felt the need to BECOME STRONGER, and that was empowered even more by Claus getting hurt by a third party that was NOT HIM. But now basically when Dio recovered he not only had to really sit and let it set in that Lucciola was gone in order to save him, but Claus lost his wings trying to save him as well. There was literally no downtime for Dio between those two events so they both would have hit him at once ALONG WITH all of his other fun sister memories when he finally did recover.

This poor boy's mind.

It made sense to see Dio in Fam being a badass elf jedi lightsaber master from the Lucciola thing alone (and the protecting Al for Claus thing), but now it really hits home when you sit back and consider how two people very important-- really 2 of the 3 MOST important people to him in his life either died or got that badly hurt for him. So the drive to be strong so that doesn't happen again because dear God is ... kind of really sad. :( Because it's definitely guilt-ridden in that 'well it's awesome now to make up for it AND I WILL it's not only my turn to protect others but I don't need anybody possibly getting hurt for ME anymore' way. As well as a 'that's well and good but it's still a little too late in certain regards' way.

But Dio tries. HE TRIES SO HARD YOU GUYS. He tries his hardest to LIVE because his LIFE means everything to him and because Lucciola sacrificed himself so Dio could live and be free. SO HE DOES HIS BEST TO LIVE ALL OF THE LIFE so that was not in vain. And he tries his hardest to KEEP HIS PROMISE TO CLAUS AND PROTECT AL because he's apparently the reason Claus can't anymore. He went from being the weak and protected to the protector.

I just. With this info when I think back to scenes and things Dio SAYS. Like ugh, when Al in 15.5 goes "maybe I should just..." when she starts to get all EVERYONE IS GETTING HURT FOR MY SAKE I just. WHAT WAS PROBABLY GOING THROUGH DIO'S MIND AHHHH and why he's so OKAY WISDOM TIME LISTEN TO ME because ... to Dio Al is someone who is mega super important to him! Everything else aside! Dio has a natural drive want to protect her, so when she said that he probably realized she feels the same way he does about that sort of thing and NEEDING TO BE PROTECTED!! So in some ways Al acting like that would serve as a bit of a self-assurance thing for HIM. Because he wants Al to know that she's important to him and he wants to protect her AND IT'S OK AND SHE SHOULDN'T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT. Like, he HAS that same feeling Lucciola and Claus had toward wanting to save him for Al, so understands it a lot better. It hurts a little less and is a little easier to deal with because he realizes "they felt this same way about me."

"So we have to live. We have to, no matter how painful it is."

djkhkjkfhsjkf bloobloobloo that line.

But with Claus there is hope. Because it says he is also undergoing recovery. Dio is SO GLAD Claus is still alive at any rate, even if he feels bad about what happened. But slow recovery and Lavie and Claus still WANTING to fly together with him again and still loving him and caring about him is enough to give him hope that he will recover and that WILL SO TOTALLY HAPPEN!!1! So unlike episode 9's "I'll never know," Claus' case is at least something that can get better. Maybe he will recover and everything will be okay again with that. It's something that can be potentially fixed, so Dio hopes more than anything that happens because it'll feel a little lighter on his shoulders.

And suddenly the tail-end of my headcanon about Dio not just flying with Lucciola in mind in the end but flying for Claus and everyone too. Oh God. It's painful but he just keeps flying and keeps going because if he slows down it'll drag him down and the sacrifices for him will have been a waste. Like THEY DIDN'T DO THIS SHIT SO DIO COULD MOPE AND BE SAD AND CRY A LOT AND HATE HIMSELF FOR IT so he does everything in his power to make sure that that does not happen. And it's not like he runs away from it exactly either, because he does deal with it and he does have feelings about it and talk about it because he's also big on the HAVING FEELINGS AND NOT HIDING THEM thing. It's just ... '-' wow Dio. It's funny how oddly okay adjusted he is overall with all of this shit (for the most part...). Or rather how strong he really is to be able to keep going since him being ... strong enough to support himself and to help his loved ones is kind of a thing here. Ugh I love him so much.

This is the worst post ever I keep trying to think of any more things to type about this because this infodump guys but every time I think about it I start having emotions and getting all AHHHH all over again. Seriously this series just. Loves giving Dio the worst life and the worst story and the ALL OF THE BAD THINGS. And I rolled around making NOISES in my Otakon hotel room when I read this on my phone.

So in conclusion:

LOL DIO'S LIFE LOL LAST EXILE

And now the wait begins to see if we get any more elaboration on what exactly happened. ROUND TWO, GONZO.